Close Close Previous Poem Next Poem Follow Us on Twitter! Poem of the Day Award Follow Us on Facebook! Follow Us on Twitter! Follow Us on Pinterest! Follow Our Youtube Channel! Follow Our RSS Feed! envelope star quill

Poems About Texas

Table of Contents

  1. Longing for Texas by Judd Mortimer Lewis
  2. The Defence of the Alamo by Joaquin Miller

  1. Longing for Texas

    by Judd Mortimer Lewis

    No, it isn't hot in Texas; and the cool night dews are falling,
    And the katydids are chirping in the grass beside the pool;
    And from out the moonlit distances the mocking-birds are calling,
    And I know the days are hazy and the nights perfumed and cool.

    And I know the jasmine's blooming as it bloomed in all its whiteness,
    And my heart is heavy in me—for I'm far away today,
    And my spirit lags forever, and my tread has lost its lightness,
    And I'm humming "Down in Dixie," and my heart throbs: "Look away!"

    Oh, it isn't hot in Texas, for the cool gulf breeze is blowing,
    And the cattle all are standing underneath the wide oak trees,
    Or are wending slowly homeward from the pasture, lowing, lowing;
    And a drone comes softly to me from the honey-laden bees.

    And I'm longing, longing, longing for the day of my homecoming,
    For the lowing of the cattle and the shadows on the stream,
    For the mocking-bird's far calling, and the laden bees' soft humming,
    And the night-dews falling coolly as the shadows in a dream.

    Oh, the rolling, rolling prairies, and the grasses waving, waving
    Like green billows neath the gulf breeze in the perfumed, purple gloam!
    Oh, my heart is heavy, heavy, and my eyes are craving, craving,
    For the fertile plains and forests of my far-off Texas home.

  2. The Defence of the Alamo

    by Joaquin Miller

    Santa Ana came storming, as a storm might come;
    There was rumble of cannon; there was rattle of blade;
    There was cavalry, infantry, bugle and drum—
    Full seven thousand in pomp and parade.
    The chivalry, flower of Mexico;
    And a gaunt two hundred in the Alamo!

    And thirty lay sick, and some were shot through;
    For the siege had been bitter, and bloody, and long.
    "Surrender, or die!"—"Men, what will you do?"
    And Travis, great Travis, drew sword, quick and strong;
    Drew a line at his feet...."Will you come?
    Will you go?
    I die with my wounded, in the Alamo."

    The Bowie gasped, "Lead me over that line!"
    Then Crockett, one hand to the sick, one hand to his gun,
    Crossed with him; then never a word or a sign
    Till all, sick or well, all, all save but one,
    One man. Then a woman stepped, praying, and slow
    Across; to die at her post in the Alamo.

    Then that one coward fled, in the night, in that night
    When all men silently prayed and thought
    Of home; of to-morrow; of God and the right,
    Till dawn; and with dawn came Travis's cannon-shot,
    In answer to insolent Mexico,
    From the old bell-tower of the Alamo.

    Then came Santa Ana; a crescent of flame!
    Then the red escalade; then the fight hand to hand;
    Such an unequal fight as never had name
    Since the Persian hordes butchered that doomed Spartan band.
    All day—all day and all night; and the morning? so slow,
    Through the battle smoke mantling the Alamo.

    Now silence! Such silence! Two thousand lay dead
    In a crescent outside! And within? Not a breath
    Save the gasp of a woman, with gory gashed head,
    All alone, all alone there, waiting for death;
    And she but a nurse. Yet when shall we know
    Another like this of the Alamo?

    Shout "Victory, victory, victory ho!"
    I say 't is not always to the hosts that win!
    I say that the victory, high or low,
    Is given the hero who grapples with sin,
    Or legion or single; just asking to know
    When duty fronts death in his Alamo.

Related Poems

Follow Us On: